SBK86

Thanks Diseazd, I didn't even know DatsunSpirit was nearby. I'm trying to figure out which parts in the engine bay were originally plated so I can do all at once. I found this picture at zeddsaver: Engine Bay Would you all say that's accurate?

Thanks guys. I tried to look up plating shops around here but apparently they changed the EPA laws a couple years ago and most of them were shut down in Maryland. I did email someone at zeddsaver to see about shipping everything out to get plated. If it's too expensive I'll try out that eastwood spray paint. Dennis, yeah I normally wouldn't care so much but since I already put in all the effort to get the carbs nice and clean I just want to make sure it's perfect before putting it back together again.

I'm an idiot. Apparently it's cad plating or yellow zinc chromate? I see that caswell offers a kit but I don't want to spend over $100 just to get the original look to the parts. Anyone have any other ideas?

I'm rebuilding my SU carbs and I'm trying to do a thorough job of cleaning them and getting them all nice and shiny. Some of the linkage bits were rusty so I dunked them in a jar of rust remover. Now they're all nice and clean but the paint is completely gone so they're metallic silver. The original color looks kind of like brass but I bought a can of metallic brass spray paint and it didn't match up. Has anyone tried to repaint their linkage back to the original color and have any tips? I'm not great with paint work. I've attached a pic of some restored ones so you can see what I mean.

I got a replacement cam gear from madkaw and everything looks much better! I made a hardwood tool using the instructions from my manual, here's a pic in case anyone on here ever needs that info: I had trouble getting the sprocket back on there and I was really worried I didn't jam that tensioner well enough. I had to really pry the gear up with a screwdriver while pushing it onto the peg. The '-' mark is on top of the V a bit. I may just move it to hole 2 later but I'll keep it as is for now. Next project is rebuilding the carbs with the kit I got from ztherapy. Thanks everyone for the help

That would be cool for my garage if I could get the tools as well.

Wow that's awful.. he probably spent more hiring the girl than he could get for that scrap.

Sure, if you'd be willing to sell your old one I'd be interested. I was also looking at this one on eBay: Datsun 69 83 510 240Z 280z 280ZX Camshaft Gear 13024 U8000 | eBay

I looked at the car again today to see if I could figure it out. I am curious what the 1, 2 and 3 marks on the outer edge are on the image in my original post. They don't line up with the 1, 2, 3 holes on the inner part of the sprocket. I couldn't find any other marks on the sprocket that might help me out. I did verify I'm at TDC. I'll post some images below to show the dizzy lining up at 1 spark plug, pointer is at the correct timing mark and the cam lobes are at about 10 and 2 pointing up just in case maybe someone sees something wrong that I did. So next I'm going to order a new sprocket, wedge the chain and install it like Diseazd suggested. Anything else I should be aware of when installing the new one? If everything is correct and it's at TDC it should look better once I install the new one... I'll update once the new gear comes in.

Thanks, yeah I agree. From all the pics I've seen online and all the manuals I've read, mine looks a bit off :/

Sorry forgot to mention I removed the sprocket bolt, I haven't done this before so I thought that might help me figure out what I'm missing. First two cam lobes are up, not straight up but they make a v shape when looked at from the front. Pretty sure its at tdc.. I'll probably just redo everything tomorrow and see if lines hp right.

Over the winter I'm working on giving the car a thorough tune up. Today's project was checking the timing chain to see if it has stretched at all. I got the car to TDC by using a ziptie in the #1 cylinder to feel when the piston came up then checked that against the mark on the crankshaft pulley. I then tried looking through the camshaft sprocket to look for those V and _ marks the haynes manual mentions. If I look behind the camshaft sprocket and down at the camshaft locate plate I can see the _ groove but I don't see a V indentation anywhere. I noticed my sprocket has three holes which differed from the 4 holes the one in the manual had.. so I checked ebay and found that my sprocket is actually a Cloyes part and not the original sprocket. Surprise to me.. is it possible that my sprocket doesn't have the V indentation to check for chain stretch? Is there something I'm missing? I attached a pic of my sprocket. Thanks again for the help

I believe so. I got through some of the coating with the wire hanger and then I hooked everything back up again. I gave the fuel pump a few more pumps with the valve cover off to make sure the lines were all primed. The car didn't start on the first try and I had killed my battery from all the attempts over the last few days so I had to jump start it. It then ran fine. I did just notice a small drip coming from one of the lines around the gas tank. I'm going to take a break for now and I'll jack it up later and check the lines again. I'm just glad I got it to the new house and I don't have to get it towed at the end of the month .

I got it running! It survived the short trip to my new house. Thanks for the help everyone

I think I might have found the problem. I removed the valve cover to get a better look at the fuel pump. It looks like its on the eccentric fine and when I manually pump it, it works. I disconnected the hose by the carb and gas shot out with one pump. I then reconnected the lines and gave it a couple pumps to fill the line. I heard a pop and gas leaking by the gas can. From all the pressure the return line to the tank came loose and was leaking. I then took a wire coat hanger and fed it through the return pipe on the gas can and it hit a wall and wouldn't go into the tank. The one thing I hadn't checked... I let a radiator shop that does gas tanks chemically clean and recoat the inside of the tank, maybe they accidentally sealed the return pipe. So I'm guessing air is getting sucked in from the tank and has no way to escape since the return is blocked which then builds up and won't let gas into the rest of the line. I'm gonna try shoving the coat hanger in a bit more to see if I can break through whatever is blocking it. I really don't want to drop the tank again.

Today I took out all the lines around the engine bay, blew compressed air through the fuel lines on the rail and took out the fuel pump again to double check it. I also left the fuel pump attached to the fuel filter and pumped it myself and gas came out the other hose pulling gas from the filter. I put everything back together and poured gas into the hose connected to the carbs and filled them up. I started the car and I timed it. It ran for about 40 seconds and then cut off. I tried to start it again and got nothing. I then immediately checked the fuel line connected to the carbs and there was nothing in it, completely dry. Soo.. my guess is that either the fuel pump is too weak or I'm installing the fuel pump incorrectly. I don't think the carb filter is causing the problem since I can pour gas in through the inlet hose and it runs fine. I ordered a simple fuel pressure gauge which should be here next week, I checked autozone for one but they wanted 50 bucks. The fuel pump I installed is an airtex 1080: Airtex 1080 Mechanical Fuel Pump : Amazon.com : Automotive Anyone else have any experience with this one? Is there a better one anyone recommends? Also maybe I used the wrong fuel line size and that's causing a problem? I'm using 1/4" ID for incoming which was what the previous owner used.

I'll try to check that out as well. I have a haynes manual to help me with the carbs which will hopefully be good enough to figure out getting to those filters. This is my first car with carburetors so I'm learning as I go along. I really need to order one of those ztherapy carb videos. I'm just in kind of a rush because I have to move at the end of the month. Luckily my new house is only 4 miles away so just gotta get it to limp that far for the time being.

Maybe one of my hose clamps isn't tight enough and it's sucking in air? I'm not sure how else air could get in the line.. I haven't seen any gas anywhere from a leaking line. I think this weekend I'll take the hoses off again and double check everything and take the cover off the float chamber and take a look. My best guess is that there's something blocking the line somewhere so not enough gas is getting through to the carbs.

Correct. I've run it several times and there's gas in the line going to and coming from the fuel pump. The fuel filter is also about 3/4 full.

Hm.. fuel pump is working. There was even gas in the hose between the pump and fuel rail. I also found gas in the hose from rail to the carbs but maybe its not enough getting through? Not sure I'm kind of stumped. If I pour gas into the hose going to the carbs the car runs for about 30 seconds and dies. If I just try to start it.. I get nothing.

So simple how did I not think of that.. I'll try it out tonight when I get home from work.

Hey everyone, I bought my 240z a few months ago and ran into some fuel problems. I was getting a lot of junk clogging my fuel filter and I had a small leak from my fuel filler hose so I decided to drop the gas tank and redo the entire fuel system. I replaced all the hoses, lines, fuel filter, restored the fuel tank and I got a new mechanical fuel pump. I just put everything together and I'm having trouble getting the car to start. Basically after reconnecting everything I needed to get the lines to refill with gas so I figured if I poured some gas in the carb float chambers the car would run for about 30 seconds and refill everything and I'd be good to go. To do this I disconnected the fuel hose from the fuel rail and poured some gas into the hoses that lead to the float chamber. I started the car and it worked... was a little rough but the car ran for about 15 seconds and I saw gas in my fuel filter. I tried to start the car again but it wouldn't go so I tried pouring more gas in the carbs thinking maybe it didn't get all the way through yet. Again it ran for about 15 seconds and the fuel filter filled all the way up but then the car cut off. Tried to start the car again and it won't start even though filter is full. My guess is I screwed something up with the mechanical fuel pump and gas isn't running past that or maybe there's a clog somewhere else in the line? I checked the lines though and they all seemed fine. Anyone have some tips? Maybe I installed the fuel pump wrong.. it only seemed to fit in one way and I replaced the gaskets and that spacer when I put the new one back on. Thanks!

Latest News: I drove the car once last week, it was such a nice day I couldn't resist even though I was having some fuel filter problems. That turned out being a terrible decision. On the way back home, about 3 miles away the car shut off on me. I checked the fuel filter since this happened before when the filter clogged up but the filter looked alright... just it had a lot less fuel in there than usual. I had a filter in the back just in case so I popped it on then tried to start the car. The filter filled up a little bit and the car ran for about 30 seconds and died again. Checked again and filter was now empty and would not fill at all. I suspect the fuel pump has completely died on me. Anyways, I had to get a tow truck to take me back the couple miles to my house.. that was quite frustrating but ah well, **** happens. Over the weekend I removed the gas tank and most of the fuel and vent hoses. A lot of the rubber hoses are brittle and falling apart so good thing I'm replacing everything. Carl, thanks for the suggestion about removing the vent tank but I think I'm going to keep it. I don't really feel comfortable with just plugging the holes. The vent tank is in good shape so I think with all new hoses I'll be fine and won't have any fumes coming from the back. I'm trying to find a radiator shop to clean the gas tank for me but every place I've called won't do it. Anyone from the southern MD/NOVA area know of a good shop? Also once I removed the gas tank I noticed that the PO had painted and coated the bottom of the tank and made it look all nice... but the top didn't get the same treatment. Not a good sign since it looks like they cut corners on the restoration years ago. Once I get it back from the shop I'll sand and re-paint it all. I'll take apart the fuel pump and see how it looks inside, probably just end up buying another since those aren't too expensive. Also I noticed after driving it I had some leakage from the differential. I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from but while I have it up on jacks it hasn't leaked anymore. I plan on changing the diff and tranny fluids once the redline oil I ordered comes in. I'll retorque the bolts on the diff and hopefully it won't leak anymore... otherwise I'll have to replace the seals. Or I may just get a new diff with a different ratio but that's something for a whole other post. I need to deal with my fuel problems first .

Thanks Leon. I think I'm going to fix my fuel issues then just take it up to Banzai Motorworks since they're only 45 minutes away. I'm sure they will be able to help me sort it out and can answer any other questions I have.

I was right the first time, I do have a fuel leak. I smelled it this morning when I went in the garage and sure enough there's a slow drip coming from the fuel filler hose where it connects to the fuel tank. I finally noticed it now that I have a full tank. Since my fuel filter is looking really nasty I think I'll just remove the gas tank completely this weekend and take it to a shop to get cleaned. So thanks again with the fuel hose info that will come in handy after all. I have another question about my car actually... I'm not sure how I missed this earlier. I was inspecting around the air cleaner and realized that the hose that attaches to the bottom is gone, there's a hose coming from near the carb that is plugged with a screw(?!) and the hole towards the front of the car on the air cleaner has been plugged on the side towards the engine. I've attached a picture so you can see what I mean, the air cleaner cover has been removed. Red arrow points to the hose with the screw plugging it and the blue arrow points to the hole that has been capped off. I'm guessing the car has been de-smogged which is fine with me I just want to be sure there isn't something weird going on.